PSR Offers Old and New Testament, Church History Lay Education Class

May 28, 2008

Explore “the Great Story of Your Faith,” a three-week intensive at Pacific School of Religion, taught by members of PSR’s core family – including the Rev. Jeffrey Kuan, Associate Professor of Old Testament and a member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The June 2-20 course, offered as a Lay Theological Education Seminar, will be taught week nights (with a single Saturday class) and is open to all.

It will provide a brief but detailed survey of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament); the writings of the New Testament; and highlights of the history of the Christian Church. Students will learn a variety of approaches to reading biblical texts, with an emphasis on methods used in interpretation, and will learn the cultural, historical, and archaeological contexts from which the Bible derived.

The course fee is $250 per week which does not include the cost of texts.

If you’re curious about the history of the Bible and Christianity you won’t want to miss this exciting seminar!

Professor Liew would like to use A Critical Introduction to the New Testament: Interpreting the Message and Meaning of Jesus Christ, by Carl R. Holladay. It can be purchased from Amazon for about $32.

Professor Lawrence would like for the class to obtain Church History: An Essential Guide, by Justo Gonzalez (Abingdon Press, 1996). It is a modest paperback that sells for about $11 (new) on Amazon.

The text(s) for the Old Testament segment are a Bible (preferably the NRSV) and A Theological Introduction to the Old Testament [TIOT] (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999) by Bruce C. Birch, Walter Brueggemann, Terence E. Fretheim & David L. Petersen. This, too, is available from Amazon for about $28 (new).